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Hollywood or reality?

BY ADAM TESTa, THE SOUTHERN

Sunday, November 11, 2007 11:24 PM CST

From John Wayne's "The Green Berets" to Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," films inspired by military operations have highlighted movie theater marquees for decades.

These films serve different purposes - they preserve the history and stories of men and women from around the globe and they entertain audiences. Some veterans prefer not to discuss these movies, but others openly share their thoughts.

David "Purp" Lavender of Murphysboro fought alongside other American soldiers during the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965. The battle marked one of the first major conflicts between the U.S. Army and the People's Army of Vietnam and claimed the lives of about 230 Americans.

Retired Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and war journalist Joseph Galloway captured the story of the battle in the book "We Were Soldiers Once? and Young" in 1992, and 10 years later, director Randall Wallace converted the story to its well-known movie format, "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson as Moore.

Lavender described the film as being "75 percent factual and 25 percent Hollywood," saying some aspects of battle may have been glorified for entertainment value and that scenes of people walking around a battlefield without being shot were unrealistic.

"The other films I've seen on the Vietnam War are 90 percent Hollywood," he said. Movies such as "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" appear to have been made to "earn a profit," he said.

Another Murphysboro resident, Ben Dunn, also knows the feeling of watching life experiences portrayed on television sets and movie screens. During World War II, he spent three and a half years as a Japanese prisoner of war, forced to help build the branch of the Burma Railway known historically as "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

When Dunn first watched the 1957 film starring Alec Guinness, the theme music stood out in his mind. He recalls British and Australian prisoners singing "The Colonel Bogey March," the song chosen as the movie's theme song. Whenever soldiers would play music, they would play the same song, Dunn said.

"It was a perfect song for the movie," he said.

Years ago, when Dunn first watched the movie, he thought it inaccurately showed an American commander cooperating with Japanese officials. However, after watching documentaries and conversing with fellow former POWs, Dunn learned one of the commanders did work with their captors' leader to secure medicine and better working conditions.

Despite this aid from their leading officer, POWs still suffered from harsh working conditions, disease and other problems, Dunn said.

"It didn't show anything about our living conditions really - how bad we were treated," he said.

The closing scenes of the movie, which depict American soldiers escaping and destroying the bridge, demonstrate Hollywood's use of creative justice when dealing with history. No Americans escaped from the prison camp during the construction of the bridge, but some attempted it closer to the end of the war. Air raids destroyed the original bridge, but a steel and concrete replacement still stands today.

Dunn said watching movies and documentaries about invasions and battles has opened his eyes to the tragedies and experiences of other veterans from the war.

"All these years after I've been home, I'm glad I was a Japanese POW instead of on one of those invasions," he said.

adam.testa@thesouthern.com / 351-5031